New features and enhancements

mkvmerge: MPEG TS reader: information about multiple programs will be output as container properties during verbose/JSON identification. See #1990 for the use case.

MKVToolNix GUI: multiplex tool: added a column "program" to the tracks list. Certain container types such as MPEG transport streams can contain multiple programs. The new column will contain the service name (think TV station names such as "arte HD") for such streams. Implements the GUI part of #1990.

MKVToolNix GUI: multiplex tool: the dialog asking the user what to do with dropped files (add to current settings, add to new settings etc.) now remembers the previous decision and defaults to it the next time it’s shown. Implements #1997.

MKVToolNix GUI: tabs can now be closed by pressing the middle mouse button. Implements #1998.

mkvmerge: JSON identification: the stream_id and sub_stream_id track properties were output as hexadecimal strings instead of unsigned integers. As the ts_pid track property was only used for MPEG transport streams, its value is now output as stream_id instead, and the ts_pid property has been removed. The JSON schema version has been bumped to 8 due to this change.

mkvmerge: fixed a crash when appending video tracks where one track has a CodecPrivate member and the other one doesn’t.

mkvmerge: track statistics tags: the NUMBER_OF_BYTES tag is supposed to contain the number of bytes in a track before any of the content encoding schemes such as lossless compression is applied; however, mkvmerge was wrongfully using the number of bytes after the schemes had been applied. Fixes #2022.

mkvmerge: CLPI & MPLS parsers: MPLS and CLPI files with version number 0300 as used on Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs are now accepted as well. Fixes #2010.

mkvpropedit: fixed a crash when the selector used for --tags is invalid.

Today I’ve released v12.0.0 of MKVToolNix. Not too many changes in this one, but at least one rather important bug fix in the HEVC/h.265 code that can result in invalid files. I therefore recommend everyone to update.

Windows users should note that starting with v11.0.0 the GUI requires Microsoft’s “Media Foundation” framework to be installed. This is the case out of the box on the consumer versions of Windows other than the N and KN variants of Windows 10. You’ll have to download and install it separate on N and KN. On server variants you can install the framework via the server administration console. See this FAQ entry for more details.

There have been no additional changes since v11.0.0 that package maintainers should be aware of.

You can download the source code or one of the binaries. The Windows and macOS binaries have been built already and are available for download. The Linux binaries will be available later today.

mkvmerge: cue sheet parser: if the cue sheet contains a non-empty `TITLE` entry and if no other segment title has been set yet, then the segment title will be set to the cue sheet’s `TITLE` value. Implements #1977.

mkvmerge, MKVToolNix GUI (multiplexer): added an option `–no-date` that prevents the "date" field from being written to the segment information headers. Implements one half of #1964.

mkvpropedit, MKVToolNix GUI: header editor: added support for editing the "date" segment information field. Implements the other half of #1964.

Bug fixes

MKVToolNix GUI: preferences → job actions, type "play audio file", on Windows: the default "play audio" action was pointing to the wrong directory. Existing configurations with such a wrong path will be fixed automatically upon starting the GUI. Fixes #1956.

mkvmerge: HEVC/h.265 parser: fixed the superfluous copying of the `bitstream_restriction_flag` and its dependent flags in the VUI parameters of the sequence parameter sets if the timing information is present, too. This fixes #1924 properly, and it also fixes #1958.

mkvmerge: MPEG TS reader, AAC parser: the MPEG TS reader will now force the AAC parser to use the multiplex mode that the MPEG TS reader has detected (e.g. LOAS/LATM). This prevents the AAC packetizer from mis-detecting it in its own attempt to identify the mode. Fixes #1957.

mkvmerge: MPEG TS reader: valid MPEG transport streams that start with an h.264/h.265 start code (e.g. a file created by cutting at an arbitrary position) were not recognized as a supported file type.

mkvmerge: MPEG TS reader: if packets are encountered that belong to a PID not listed in the program map table (PMT), mkvmerge will attempt to determine their type and codec from the content. This supported content types are AAC (ADTS only) and AC-3. Fixes #1980.

mkvmerge: MP4 reader: fixed finding and parsing the `colr` atom if there are more than one video extension atoms and the `colr` atom is not the first one.

Here’s release v11.0.0 of MKVToolNix. There have been several important bug fixes to the HEVC/h.265 and AVC/h.264 parsers. Among the fixed bugs are some that will silently produce invalid files. I therefore recommend everyone to update.

This release includes a couple of smaller enhancements to the GUI as well. Noteworthy is the implementation of features that have been requested several in the past: playing a sound or shutting down the computer after the current job’s been completed. The implementation is very flexible and not limited to those two actions, though.

There have been several changes the package maintainers should be aware of, see the section “build system changes” below.

You can download the source code or one of the binaries. The Windows and macOS binaries have been built already and are available for download. The Linux binaries will be available later today.

New features and enhancements

mkvmerge: MP4 reader: merged pull request #1804 adding support for parsing the "COLR" atom and including its values as track headers.

MKVToolNix GUI: watch jobs: the user can now have the GUI execute an action once as soon as the current job or the whole queue finishes. The actions are the same ones that can be configured to be run automatically after job or queue completion.

MKVToolNix GUI: implemented several built-in actions that can be executed either on special events or once via the "watch jobs" tool. These are: playing an audio file (implemented for all operating systems); hibernating, sleeping and shutting down the computer (only implemented for Windows and for Linux systems using systemd).

MKVToolNix GUI: multiplex tool: added a new option for what to do after starting to multiplex/adding to the job queue: "close current settings" will close the current multiplex settings without opening new ones.

mkvmerge: HEVC/h.265 parser: fixed copying the `bitstream_restriction_flag` and all dependent fields in the VUI parameters of the sequence parameter sets. Fixes #1924.

mkvmerge: HEVC/h.265 parser: fixed the calculation of the number of parameter set arrays in the HEVCC data structure stored in CodecPrivate. Fixes the video-related part of #1938.

mkvmerge: HEVC/h.265 parser: fixed writing superfluous and uninitialized bytes at the end of the HEVCC data structure stored in CodecPrivate. Another fix for the video-related part of #1938.

mkvmerge: HEVC/h.265 parser: fixed the assumption that the HEVCC data structure always includes arrays for all parameter set types (VPS, SPS, PPS and SEI), and that the order is always VPS → SPS → PPS → SEI. Instead now only the arrays actually present are parsed, and they can be in any order. This fixes mkvinfo’s output for Matroska files created from files such as the one from #1938.

mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 packetizer: when reading a framed track (e.g. from Matroska or MP4 files), specifying a default duration as fields (e.g. `50i`) would result in double the actual duration for each frame and the track’s default duration header field. Fixes #1916.

mkvmerge: Matroska reader: invalid track language elements are now treated as if they were set to `und` = "undetermined". See #1929 for context.

mkvmerge: MPEG TS reader, AAC: mkvmerge will now require five consecutive AAC headers with identical parameters before track type determination is considered valid. This avoids false positives and consequently wrong track parameters. Fixes the audio-related part of #1938.

mkvmerge: fixed an endless loop in certain circumstances when splitting by `parts` or `parts-frames` and the start of the file is discarded. Fixes #1944.

MKVToolNix GUI: multiplexer tool: the "show command line" dialog will no longer include the mkvmerge executable’s location as the first argument for the two "MKVToolNix option files" escape modes. Fixes #1949.

MKVToolNix GUI, header editor: empty track language elements are now treated the same as those set to invalid ISO 639-2 codes: as if they were set to `und` = "undetermined". See #1929 for context.

Build system changes

bug fix: configure now looks for the `strings` binary by using the `AC_CHECK_TOOL()` autoconf macro. That way it will be found in multiarch setups, too. Fixes #1923.

The `.desktop` files have been renamed to `org.bunkus.mkvtoolnix-gui.desktop` and `org.bunkus.mkvinfo.desktop`. This allows Wayland compositors to associate the correct icons with running applications for e.g. task switchers. Fixes #1948.

Qt’s multimedia component is required for compilation of the GUIs since version 11.0.0.

mkvmerge: MP3 packetizer: the MP3 packetizer will no longer drop timestamps from source containers if they go backwards. This keeps A/V in sync for files where the source was in sync even though their timestamps aren’t monotonic increasing. Fixes #1909.

mkvmerge: AVC/h.264 parser: mkvmerge will now drop timestamps from the source container if no frame is emitted for that timestamp. Fixes #1908.

mkvmerge: HEVC/h.265 parser: mkvmerge will now drop timestamps from the source container if no frame is emitted for that timestamp. Fixes the HEVC equivalent of the problem with AVC described in #1908.

mkvextract: SSA/ASS: fixed extraction when the "Format" line in the "[Events]" section contains less fields than the default for SSA/ASS would indicate. Fixes #1913.